Late 19th century. Short for post-classical Latin T. Maioli Et Amicorum ‘[this book is the property] of T. Maiolus and his friends’, and similar inscriptions on the bindings of books owned by Thomas Mahieu (Latinized Maiolus) (fl. 1549–88), Italian-born French book-collector and royal servant. The form Maioli may have been reinforced by the conjecture, effectively disproved by G. D. Hobson and S. De Ricci in G. D. Hobson, Maioli, Canevari and Others, that this was also the vernacular form of Mahieu's name.